In the Long Run

I teach a free weight class at the YMCA called Power Flex. This session all the participants in the class are women, and we have a good time working out together doing squats, lunges, dips, pushups, presses, curls, deadlilfts, and other exercises that are undoubtedly sculpting and toning our bodies into maiden-like physiques. I constantly remind the women that “strong women stay young”, and I think most of us are evidence that my little mantra is true. Well, we think young, anyway. We have a good time.

One of the women in the class, Peggy, has really impressed me. She sets up her equipment in the back of the gym, but still in the center so I can always easily see her. She is serious about her weight-lifting, and challenges herself each week. She pays close attention to my cues, and has good form and technique. In these aspects, the other class members are very similar to her.

There are a couple of things, though, that set Peggy apart from the rest. She always has an encouraging smile on her face when she comes to class. She keeps smiling throughout class, even during repetitive, groaning lunges. She smiles appreciatively at my corny jokes. And after class, even if she is drained and tired, she is still smiling and cheerful, and nearly always gives me what I feel to be sincere compliments.

Peggy often puts away MY equipment after class when I am distracted with other class members or duties, and then stays even longer to assist me when I rack and cover the weights. She is sincerely helpful, and, well, nice. These attitudes and actions might be fawning and sycophantic when rendered by another, but Peggy is genuinely unpresumptuously pleasant.

I can’t help but contrast the way she is nice, with the way I described myself as nice at the end of a previous blog. Peggy’s goodness is pro-active. At times, my niceness is only the absence of malice. My Power Flex class is definitely better with the attendance of Peggy—a strong, nice, woman.

Posted by Cyppy at 9:20 PM